John Pulskamp - Sporting KC’s No.1 on Zlatan, Premier League Trials & MLS Life - E24

This week on The Back Stick Podcast, Jamil Roberts and Dom Okus welcome Sporting Kansas City’s starting goalkeeper, John Pulskamp, for a deep dive into his remarkable journey from LA Galaxy’s academy to becoming the No.1 at SKC.

We discuss what it takes to be a top MLS goalkeeper, learning from club legend Tim Melia, and adapting to the pressures of being the starter. John shares stories from training with Zlatan Ibrahimović, his eye-opening trial with Premier League side Bournemouth, and the heartbreak of a denied UK work visa that could’ve changed his career.

We also delve into the rigors of an MLS schedule, navigating setbacks in Europe, and what the future holds for Sporting KC following Peter Vermes' departure.

A must-listen for football fans, aspiring goalkeepers, and anyone curious about the realities of professional soccer life in the US and abroad.

00:00 Welcome John Pulskamp  

02:13 Sporting KC's New Number 1  

11:19 No.1 vs No.2 - Difference In Preparation  

15:19 The Rigors of an MLS Schedule  

18:59 The Pressure of Performance  

21:38 What Do Keepers Actually Do In Training?!  

30:12 LA Galaxy: Sharing a Building With Zlatan  

34:20 Bournemouth Trials & Tribulations  

42:07 Portugal & Germany Trials  

49:24 Finding a Home in Kansas City  

58:23 Extra Time with John Pulskamp 

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Transcript

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (00:00)
Hello everyone and welcome to the Backstik podcast. I'm Jamil Roberts and I'm joined here as usual by Dom, Dom Ocas. Dom, how are you, mate?

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (00:13)
Yeah, good bravo. I spent a little minute. I feel like we've been starving the fans. I know they're going to be happy to hear that we're back in the studio. Super busy time for me at work and stuff. And it's roasting in Austin right now. Yesterday I was wearing shorts to work because for our American fans it was 100 Fahrenheit. If you're from the UK that's...

38 Celsius, 40 Celsius, something like that. Absolutely filthy. But before I introduce our guest, I do just want to say if you've been rocking with us, we appreciate you. Thank you so much. Make sure you're liking, commenting, subscribing, all that stuff. And if you're new here, I'm telling you, just click the like button now. Subscribe now, because this is going to be a banger.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (00:38)
Can you imagine that in England by the way? It'd be riots!

John Pulskamp (00:40)
Yes.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (01:04)
But I'm really looking forward to this conversation. We've got SKC's number one. Don't post it, welcome to the pod, man. How you doing?

John Pulskamp (01:12)
What's up? I'm doing alright man. Thanks for having me on. Jamil, to see you again. Tom, it's pleasure. Yeah, forward to a chat with you boys.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (01:16)
No.

Yeah, that's it.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (01:22)
Yeah, mate, it's always a pleasure, mate, always a pleasure. I mean, ⁓ just to kind of, for those who aren't familiar, first and foremost, John, from a personal standpoint, he's a good lad, he's the best goalkeeper I've ever played with. And he's seeing his flowers now, the fruits of his labor, as Dom said, Sporting KC is number one.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (01:23)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (01:41)
Cheers, bro, cheers.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (01:50)
after Tim Mealy's retirement. So, you know, I guess we'll just kick it off there, mate. Like, how does that feel? I know, you know, you've always been someone who's put in the, you know, the hard yards, the work behind closed doors, you're always in the gym, you know, doing the little bits after training, you know, finally seeing all those years of hard graft, you know, showing now.

John Pulskamp (01:57)
Yeah? Yeah?

Yeah, no, look man.

Yeah, look, I think you summed it up perfectly. I was with you in those early years where it was nothing but grinding and not a lot to, you know, not always a lot to be rewarded with, especially being a goalkeeper, being in that position. It's such a tough position because you don't know when your opportunities are coming and whatnot and you're just working towards something that...

You have to just trust that down the road it's gonna pay off. And yeah, thankfully it has, ⁓ at least thus far. Coming into the season, first season as the outright number one, was behind a club legend in Temelea for so long. ⁓

which was great. I learned so much from the guy, great guy, just a top dude. You know him and just such a good dude on and off the field, just a good dude to work with and be around. ⁓ But he will be the first to tell you that I wasn't satisfied with just being a number two. I was always pushing, trying to take the job off of him. And we had that relationship where that was fine. We were working together and we both wanted to be playing.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (03:05)
Yeah, top of it. Yeah.

you

John Pulskamp (03:32)
And you know, he was the guy for a long time and has done so much in his career. So now that kind of change into the guard has finally happened. And yeah, I'm just trying to soak it all in because it goes by fast. It goes by fast. It seems like just a couple of months ago, me and you were out playing together and hanging out. now it's, mean, how many years has it been since you left Kansas City? Has it been five? That's, that's,

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (03:51)
Yeah, I know.

I this is five years now, four or five years. I think it was 2021.

John Pulskamp (04:02)
21 21 so four years, but still man that seems like it was Seems like yesterday, you know seems seriously like just

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (04:03)
So four years, four years. It's gone by like that, innit? Yeah. Yeah.

John Pulskamp (04:11)
just just how quickly things roll So I'm just trying I'm just trying to live in the moment now,

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (04:13)
But I'm...

Yeah, I don't blame you. And like we were talking before, before we started recording here, weren't we? And like, I mean, I think obviously I was only at the club for a year, but I consider myself very fortunate that we had a very, very, not only good, as in good players.

John Pulskamp (04:21)
Eugh.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (04:32)
But the young core, like back in those years that came up through the academy that I like obviously got drafted into, but like I just felt like I fit in right away with the boys and it like, I think that like, although we were all pushing for the same goal, like it was good to be surrounded by, know, eight or nine other lads that all pulling in the same direction. You kind of like had each other's backs as well. Like it was class on it.

John Pulskamp (04:34)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, no, it really wasn't. And that was like such an interesting time in Kansas City because it was exactly said we had this larger group, you know, six, seven, eight, nine younger guys that were, you know, all trying to break into and break into the first, know.

getting minutes on the field here and there and trying to, I guess, find their place in the team. So we were all just kind of in this boat together, kind of on the fringes of the first team, but just grinding away. And there was an older team at the time. You had a team of guys that had 10, 15 year careers that you're trying to take their spot. It's no easy task. So just like you said, it kind of was this feeling of we're all in this together. Let's all kind of band together and support.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (05:29)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (05:49)
each other, have a good time. then the other thing, just like you said, like you come in and I mean look, all my professional career has been at sport in Kansas City. I've got experience, you know, going to things like, you know, with the national team and, you know, I came up through Galaxy's Academy. So I've gotten tastes of other professional environments, spent some time at Bournemouth, got to see how, you know, their dynamic is.

Nowhere that I've been or experienced or talked about is like Kansas City's Sporting Kansas City's locker room in the sense that like you could come in and if you're Not a weirdo like if you come in and you're like a half decent dude, and you're a cool guy Like great. We'll welcome you in we're going out to dinner. We're going for a night out. We're hanging out like

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (06:29)
You

It's fine, innit?

John Pulskamp (06:41)
Everyone is so welcoming on the team like top dudes and and it was no different when when you came in or other guys come in and it's like all right we have another person to to basically include and and and be And and and be friends with so that's why it was it was was fun years. It was good years Because we had such a big group of young players that we're all just trying to trying to figure it out

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (06:45)
Mm-hmm.

Mmm.

Yeah, no Dom, one name that's come up on this podcast quite a few times just because we've had a few of the SKC boys on is obviously Johnny. And you mentioned there about taking the lads out for dinner and this and that. So ⁓ Dom, I think I'd only been at the club for like a week. And then I went straight in with the first team and... ⁓

John Pulskamp (07:15)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (07:33)
I think after that first week or whatever, like the club sat me down and like they said that they were going to offer me something great. And then literally the next day, Johnny came in the changing room and he was like, right, we're going for a team meal. We don't have a game on Saturday. ⁓ and we had, I think we had like a, I think it was like a Thursday off. It was a random one. So we went to dinner on a Wednesday night. So I turned up, ⁓ to dinner and I remember I was sat, it was like the four of us in the corner. was me, you, Bruxy and Ty.

John Pulskamp (07:53)
is around

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (08:03)
Wilson was there as well. and do remember you picked me up from that shit hotel that they had me in when they first got in? ⁓

John Pulskamp (08:08)
I remember exactly, exactly. There's

a notorious hotel that when players come in it's not great. So pretty quickly players try to find apartments, places to like, it's cause I think they do that on purpose to try to get guys moving, like, hey, go get your life situated. We're not gonna put you up in the five-star hotel. You're gonna be living there for a month on our dime.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (08:16)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (08:17)
Thank you.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (08:25)
Yeah.

Literally, settling. Yeah.

Yeah, so anyway, I turn up to the dinner, we're around there, and this is obviously, don't know if Johnny is a person or whatever, blah, blah, blah. So we're ordering food, we're ordering drinks, and I just got a beer. I just got something cheap or whatever. And Johnny was the only other British player on the team, and he turned around to me and he was like, what the fuck are you drinking? And I was like.

I'm just having a beer mate. He was like, no, drink something proper. Make the bloke literally clicks, brings the waiter over and sends two fucking glasses of Patron over to me straight away. And I was like, I'm not paying for this. He was like, don't worry. But that was the one thing like he was like, I remember him and Roger like used to split everything and we used to do stuff like that. Like they were taught, weren't they?

John Pulskamp (08:59)
Yeah.

Yeah,

yeah, no, yeah, no, mean, you couldn't ask for a better captain, veteran type player than Johnny and not just Johnny, mean, guys like Tim, guys like Roger, it was really the older group of players. Johnny spearheaded most of it, I will say, but just the perfect guy to have in the locker room because he's...

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (09:18)
Yeah, that's sick.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (09:36)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (09:42)
An absolute workhorse on top of being a phenomenal player will die on the pitch if he has to. I mean, you're talking about a guy that'll, yeah, yeah, exactly. This guy is, like, his head is different. He will play through some crazy injuries. He will run through a brick wall for 90 minutes.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (09:50)
Mate, I've seen that man recover from a torn hamstring to play in like two weeks. It's ridiculous.

John Pulskamp (10:06)
But then, you know, he'll come off the field and make sure everyone's, you know, having a good time, team cam, organizing stuff. I mean, I've never experienced a player that is so good at banding together a group of guys, set and stuff, like, taking, just really taking the initiative to set stuff up, include new guys, include young guys, include all the older guys, like, and then just making sure everyone was, you know, enjoying themselves and everyone's needs were all sorted and stuff. So yeah, no, top guy, top guy.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (10:34)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (10:36)
you

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (10:36)
It's

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (10:36)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (10:37)
funny you say this because I don't know him, I've never met him and we've probably had five or six boys on the pod now. Speak about him, I feel like I know him and I feel ⁓ like this is a foreshadowing that we've to get him on the pod because he sounds like a great guy. The way everyone's speaking about him, I want to be friends with him as well. Can he take me? I'm thinking, can he take me for dinner? Do know what mean?

John Pulskamp (10:47)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (10:51)
May.

John Pulskamp (10:51)
No, yeah, that's like that's

that like that's like that's the best way that's like the best way you could describe him is like the guy you want to be friends with because he's just he's hilarious like one of the funniest guys you'll ever meet like just good vibes good energy Like just just yeah, just just a good guy to be around is somebody you want to be friends with for sure He's a cool. He's a cool dude and a hell of a player and a hell of a player as well

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (10:58)
Ha

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, man, 100%. Well, mate, what a player. But I mean,

just want to bring it back to you a second there, mate, and come back into sort of 2025, obviously, taking the taking the starting role and whatnot. So I know you played last night at 2-2 draw. But when you look back, right, and you

John Pulskamp (11:23)
⁓

Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (11:40)
think about all of the hard work and this and that and whatever. How do you think that's prepared you not only in, cause you're a good goalkeeper, you've been a goalkeeper since you were a kid, like you know how to do that, but what's different now, like mentally, like how has that changed for you stepping into that starting role as opposed to let's call a spade a spade, like watching most games and traveling knowing you're not going to play is a different pressure.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (11:46)
you

John Pulskamp (11:50)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. It was completely different. And

I knew it was going to be a bit different going into this year, ⁓ but not as different as it turned out to be. ⁓

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (12:16)
Yeah, yeah.

John Pulskamp (12:17)
You know, it's, yeah, it's like when you're, when you're a number two, you're, you know, looking at the calendar and, and checking when the cup games are and you're checking when, you know, this is, you know, maybe a, dense, dense part of the schedule. You know, we've got six, seven games this month. Maybe I'll get this one. Maybe I'll get this one. And, know, you're talking with the goalkeeper coach like, Hey, you know, what's the plan for me? What, which games am I going to get this year? And, and you have so much time to kind of.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (12:35)
you

John Pulskamp (12:46)
Think about those games leading up to them that you know, maybe it's a good thing Maybe it's a bad thing that sometimes you're you know You build it up a little too much like all this is gonna be my one game in a three four month stretch I've got a you know, do something special or I got to be perfect in this game ⁓ But then it's also you know, which might not be the best but then it's also good because you have time to prepare and however the game goes you then have time to really digest it and you know, look at the good moments look at the bad moments and and

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (13:05)
Thank

John Pulskamp (13:16)
you kind of exhale a little bit, you you kind of get that weight off your shoulders, like, okay, I played, you know, a good game. Now I can, you know, go back to work, go back to training where there is no pressure really. And, and now it's just 180 degrees different of good game, bad game. After that game's over, yes, you're looking at it, you're analyzing it, but you know, you're, you're, taking those notes. You just have to compartmentalize in your brain of like,

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (13:18)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (13:46)
the things you're trying to continuously work on and get better at while also now, okay, you don't have two months to kind of, know, exhale a little bit and then start prepping for your next game. It's like, I mean, for example, this week is a perfect example. Played away at Portland on a Saturday, flew back and had a midweek game away to St. Louis Wednesday. And then now, I mean, that was just last night.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (13:56)
Hmm.

John Pulskamp (14:12)
And now I have another away game on Saturday back to San Diego's three away games in a week. Saturday, Wednesdays, some miles as well. mean, especially like, you you guys coming from the UK like this isn't flying from, you know, London to Manchester. This is flying, you know, three and a half hours, literally three and a half hours to Portland, three and a half. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Exactly. This is this is like three Champo League games like, you know, in a week like it is.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (14:19)
And that's some air miles as well by the way.

Fucking... fucking London to Moscow.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (14:28)
Let's.

Yeah.

John Pulskamp (14:42)
It's different in the MLS, the travel is for sure different. So it's just like, yeah, like, you you play these games and then, you know, you're so mentally locked into this one game in these moments that you're thinking about all these moments. then like today I'm going over all the footage of St. Louis and then, you know, I'm trying to think through the game a little bit and then.

all of sudden, you know, I have to remember, okay, well now we have to close that tab basically and open a new one to watch film on San Diego and I gotta go home and do some laundry and pack because I got a flight, I got a flight tomorrow. Like, you know, it's just, it's a crazy, it's a crazy, crazy schedule.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (15:09)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah

mental in there.

Mate, it's a funny one you touch on

because like these are things that like we talk about it don't we Dom, a couple of times like these are things that people don't realise like people think like playing football yes it's the best job in the world it really is but like no one wants to be doing that no one wants to be like getting hurt like you said you've literally you've moved into a new house mate and like you're spending like one day a week there at the minute like you know sometimes you just want to put your feet up for an afternoon

John Pulskamp (15:34)
It is.

No, no. Yeah. ⁓

Exactly,

Exactly

exactly. No, I mean just like you said it's it's the best job in the world wouldn't trade it for anything but it's not ⁓ like it comes with with the I guess you could say negatives or the side effects that the sacrifice that people don't realize I mean

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (16:03)
Yeah, a sacrifice.

John Pulskamp (16:08)
you know, I'm a single guy with pretty limited responsibility in terms of off the field stuff. And I feel stretched thin, you know, I can only imagine guys with wives and families and kids. It's like they're spending more time with me than they are their wives and kids. know, they don't want to spend more time with me than their wives and kids. I'll tell you that, you know, they're sick of me hoping I'm going to shut up and you know, they're just missing their wives and I'm over here just being a goofball. So, yeah, it's, ⁓

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (16:20)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (16:23)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (16:23)
Yeah

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (16:28)
Yeah.

Yeah, you

touched on something interesting there. So this week, for example, people who aren't ⁓ in football won't necessarily know what that schedule looks like. So just break it down to us. you got an away game on Saturday, so what, you traveling on the Thursday before? Right, so you travel on the Friday, land on the Friday. You won't train on the Friday, will you?

John Pulskamp (16:52)
Friday.

Yeah.

Yeah, so the way we do it, think some teams, some teams will do it a little differently. The way we always do it is we train in the morning here in Kansas City on the Friday. We'll have our match day minus one, so day before game session, typically a bit lighter, tactical, a bit of fun. And then we fly out in the afternoons.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (17:00)
Yes.

John Pulskamp (17:17)
get to wherever we're going in the evenings, have a team dinner, rest, relax, maybe have a night before meeting with the team, go over the lineup, go over some tactics. And then you wake up on game day and you do your game day routine in the hotel and then you play. So that Saturday night and then depending on where it is and what the schedule is, sometimes we stay the night and then fly out the next morning. But most of the time we'll be flying back that same night. So I mean, for some of these.

trips

that were flying back the same night especially if we're going west where the time changes I mean we're getting back at 2 3 4 8 we had a trip this year we got back from San Jose at 4 45 a.m. and yeah I mean I didn't get back to my house till I mean damn near the Sun was rising and and yeah it's brutal and like again just like you said like that's the stuff that people don't see of like crazy hours crazy travel this is on a weekend like we don't get weekends we don't get you know this this

⁓ free time it's always it always makes me laugh like people like what are doing this weekend I'm like I'm working this weekend like this I I've been I've been working all week because the big work is on the weekend you know that's when the match day is and and you know it's it's it's travel and then you got to come and then you know oftentimes it's it's it's quick turn quick turnarounds like you know you got a game coming up so it's it's not like you got have to go through this travel and then you get you know two or three days to kind of

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (18:22)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (18:22)
You

Yeah

John Pulskamp (18:43)
put yourself back together, we're lucky if we get one day. Oftentimes it's coming back in for recovery and in different sessions and all of that. So yeah, it's definitely a tougher schedule than I think people give the credits for.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (18:59)
Yeah, because if you think about it, right, like this is something fans don't think about. And it's something I guess I don't even think about as well as a fan. like, West Ham are doing terrible. I'm a West Ham fan. They're doing terrible this year. Jam, you're in the same boat. You're in the same boat. Man, United are doing awful. It's all right. We're getting to it.

John Pulskamp (19:07)
Nah, tough as hell.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (19:12)
Europa League final mate, Europa League final.

John Pulskamp (19:12)
that was shocking, yeah?

Europa- Europa League- Europa League's your only hope, huh? some final that is, by the way

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (19:14)
Europa League final.

16th

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (19:20)
But there's no times.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (19:22)
15th in the Premier in a European final. ⁓

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (19:22)
It stinks. It actually stinks. It stinks. But my point is there's no time to correct bad form. Like there's no time to really get on the training pitch and work on things because you might have a day training but that day of training is probably not super intense and all you're doing is gearing up for the next game. So like if there's actually a problem with the system and something's not working, there's no time to correct it. It's like play this game, get ready for this game.

John Pulskamp (19:26)
Shocking. Shocking.

No. No.

Yeah.

⁓ Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (19:50)
Alright, that went badly. Alright, we'll get ready for the next game. And then that went badly. And then it just spirals. So it's not easy. It's not easy at all.

John Pulskamp (19:51)
Yeah, exactly. That's

a great point that you've just mentioned there. And that's the part that I feel like so many people don't realize. And it's why we say it all the time, like playing in it. And when you guys play it, I'm sure you remember momentum is such a big part of our sport. And it's why you see.

So often, like once teams catch bad form or get a couple bad results in a row, so easy to let that kind of spiral out of control because I mean, like, you know, I feel for him. hate to see it, but like, you know, Galaxy, they've won the MLS Cup last year and then they come into this season and just, you know, a couple of things don't go their way. And so easily it can spiral. It's happened to us in recent years, you know, with us not being where we typically should be. And it's not because the team's not, you

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (20:26)
viral.

John Pulskamp (20:47)
doesn't have the quality. It's not because the guys are putting the work. It's it's like dominoes. And it could go the opposite way as well. Once you kind of get your hot hand and you start winning games, it's, football's easy and yeah, football's easy and you're loving life and yeah, but when it's not going well and you're trying to stop the bleeding while still having to do a million other things and you're just working on the fly and it can become very, very difficult. So that's why, I mean, I think it's...

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (21:01)
Life feels great, doesn't it?

Yeah.

John Pulskamp (21:16)
Such an important thing that plenty of teams will say, say all the time, it's like, you don't want to lose two in a row. Don't lose two in a row, because two can turn into three and four, then you start going down that path. And the longer that continues on, the harder it is to kind of reel it back in. So it's always on to the next, but try to keep it steady.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (21:39)
Yeah, nice. One thing I forgot to ask before, mate, and this is kind of just jumping back into sort of that, I guess, routine aspect, right? But listen, no disrespect.

John Pulskamp (21:44)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (21:56)
What do goalkeepers do in training? You're just booting a ball at each other.

John Pulskamp (21:58)
In training! ⁓ my days!

Yeah, a lot of that.

Now look, I always say, you know, we've got...

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (22:11)
For fuck's sake.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (22:13)
Like, I'm

sorry, when you say you're looking over the game, like I get it, right? You probably say like, I could have moved my feet quicker or like tip that one out of the top corner. like, the end of the day, you're just gonna go back on the training pitch and volley balls at each other.

John Pulskamp (22:18)
Yeah.

Exactly, yeah, there we go, yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (22:25)
You

John Pulskamp (22:31)
Yeah,

know, some degree to truth to that. ⁓ But now, yeah, I mean, look, it comes to a point, especially when you are playing well and things are going good and there's not anything in particular that's really sticking out of like a reoccurring, I guess, error or flaw, then yeah, then it does. It gets pretty routine in terms of just... ⁓

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (22:36)
You ⁓

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (22:52)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (22:59)
Hey, let's look at what the other team likes to do. You know, let's look at, know, how are they creating their chances? How are they scoring their goals? And then you just try to replicate, just try to replicate what they do. You know, if you play against a team that's, you know, dumping balls into the box and crossing, well then that week I'm just going to be taking a ton of crosses and header, you know, replicating headers and things like that. But in some way, shape or form, it ends up just being, yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (23:11)
Mm-hmm.

It's like a rapid... Yeah. Because, mate, like... Because I don't know about you, Dom, yeah, but I think you lot are nuts. ⁓ I think you've got to a screw loose to enjoy getting the ball smacked at you. And there's one thing that you do, like, better than most goalkeepers I've ever seen do it.

John Pulskamp (23:27)
Somebody lumping a ball at me, whether it's from distance or from close range or from across, it's me just trying to keep the ball out of the net.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (23:34)
That's it.

John Pulskamp (23:47)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (23:54)
And that is, wait, have I dropped out here? Have I dropped out? No, I'm back. No, sorry. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now, one thing that you do better than most goalkeepers that I've seen is you come out and you spread like ridiculously well, like, and you make yourself so big, but I'm just talking as a bloke here.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (23:58)
Now you're in though.

John Pulskamp (23:59)
Nah, we've got

you, we've got you, we've got you, you're

They all spread.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (24:17)
Right? Like, how, are you wearing a box when you play? Because like, I'm not, I'm not jumping into anything spread eagle when some geezer's about to fucking smash it at me. Like, you got some stones, mate.

John Pulskamp (24:18)
Yeah.

Yeah, no, so a couple points you made one having to having to screw loose and maybe being a bit of a a wild guy Look, it's just it's a stereotype of the position But you know like

some stereotypes, they come from a place of a little bit of truth and I think it's helpful, I genuinely do.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (24:54)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (25:00)
maybe not a requirement, but is a nice thing to have if you are a bit of ⁓ yeah, know, kind of kind of a, that, you know, strong personality or a little bit of a careless personality where you're willing to do some things that most people maybe aren't the first in line to do. So look, I mean, and I've always been that, I've always been a kind of a high energy, ⁓

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (25:12)
Mmm.

You

John Pulskamp (25:27)
wild child growing up and that's why I think I probably got stuck in goal early on was because when everyone else was you know turning their heads not wanting to not wanting to be the guy I was like I'll do it. ⁓ No no no no no no no far from it far far from it. Maybe because I couldn't run that made maybe I had the worst fitness.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (25:36)
Yeah.

It wasn't because you were the worst player, no? I've seen you in possession, mate. Don't worry. ⁓

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (25:41)
Hahaha!

Thanks.

Thanks.

John Pulskamp (25:56)
That part comes and goes, that part comes and goes. But, man, I couldn't run and I was just a crazy, crazy guy. it just worked out. And then, as for, you know, said coming out and spreading, I appreciate that compliment. But ⁓ yeah, that's always been such a big part of my game. It's definitely my, I say like my specialty or like what I'm best at, but it's a strength of mine for sure. It's one-by-ones and I've always been a...

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (25:58)
Yeah. ⁓

you

John Pulskamp (26:26)
Funny enough, I was just having this conversation with a young goalkeeper I was talking to and he was asking about different situations and different scenarios and it's something I've always said and I'm sure you'll agree is like, it applies to all positions and most things in sport and in life. Rarely are things like black and white.

right way and wrong way, you know? There's situations on the field, I'll keep it in the context of soccer, that two different guys can be two different styles. You have a bit of individual choice on the field. Of course, there's scenarios where, no, there's a right decision and a wrong decision, but.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (26:56)
Thank

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (27:03)
Yeah, yeah.

John Pulskamp (27:13)
sometimes there's multiple choices, you know, so in the context of like goalkeeping, I've always been a more aggressive goalkeeper. It's just how I've always played. ⁓ It's what I was best at. That's what came naturally to me. You know, I grew up watching guys like Tim Howard represent the U.S. and, you know, kind of looking up to him and he was such an aggressive goalkeeper, know, really, really quick off his line. Somebody was coming out and using angles.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (27:23)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (27:44)
And then as a result, know, lot of the goalkeeping coaches I worked with kind of saw that natural tendency I had and kind of had the same philosophy of, you know, use angles, use the space to close down the ball. You give yourself the best chance.

And that's just kind of how I've always played and I've been able to kind of, you not going to say master, but get a decent handle and decent grasp on how to play 1v1s and how to use my body. Whereas some other keeper, you you watch a lot of the world's best today and they don't play that way. They stay real close to the line. They are moving their feet and they're, you know, picking balls out of corners and...

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (28:20)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (28:28)
And it's two different ways, but it's not necessarily a right or wrong way. that's what basically just what I was explaining to this person is like.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (28:36)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (28:37)
You you could have two different scenarios. If a guy's dribbling on an angle, I might elect to come out and take a ball to the face, chest, arms, block the angle and use my body. Some guy might be standing right next to his post on his line waiting to make more of a diving save and to kind of claw it out.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (28:54)
Yeah.

Man, it's so interesting. Like, cause I just look at you and I think like you just, you will dive, you'll catch, you will punch. Like, do know what mean? But like it's interesting. Like it's actually very insightful for me to like, actually see stylistically like goalkeepers have a certain way. I mean, cause to me I go, they either punt it long or they play out. That's the only two different styles.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (29:03)
Thank you.

John Pulskamp (29:04)
Yeah. Yeah.

No, absolutely, yeah.

⁓

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (29:19)
Literally!

John Pulskamp (29:20)
You're either a ball playing GK or you're not. No, the goalkeeping itself as well. The goalkeeping itself as well for sure. For sure, yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (29:23)
Yeah.

⁓ class.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (29:26)
That's funny.

But it's funny you say that because I always think about US soccer in general and I think about goalkeepers and I think America, in terms of all of their players, and it's got better over time, but America's always produced good goalkeepers. I think about some of the good goalkeepers in the past, like Brad Friedle or Tim Howard, for example, they've always produced really good goalkeepers. And you mentioned something earlier about you come through at Galaxy.

John Pulskamp (29:34)
Yeah.

Yeah, some power, kiss, yeah.

you

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (29:55)
Obviously, know, it's one kind of, we said you had a stint at Bournemouth, probably because, you know, these Premier League clubs are looking into America and thinking, you know, they've always had some good talent. So just tell us a little bit about your experience there, going there, probably about 17 or 18 and how that came about.

John Pulskamp (30:00)
Yeah.

Yeah,

yeah, no, it was such a fantastic experience. was 17, I was playing for the Galaxies Academy at the time. And I was doing pretty well for myself. I was in the national team, the youth national team system with the US since I was 14, 13, 14.

playing for the youth national team system and you know playing for at the time was probably the best Academy in the country We had made it to three Academy finals, you know the national finals lost all three but

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (30:50)
Thank you.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (30:50)
Brilliant.

John Pulskamp (30:50)
But just

that consistency and we kind of had that reputation of being the team to beat and some of the guys I played in with Academy are just phenomenal talents. With that said, as good as that development Academy was that they had.

You know, at the time at Galaxy there was just a ceiling above that academy. It was just so difficult to break in to the first team and even to the second team at that time. you know, Galaxy is a great club. It's the club I grew up supporting. It's a club I grew up watching. You know, it'll always be like special to me in that sense that like this is the club that really got me into soccer. And it was going to Galaxy games that I decided I want to be playing in the stadium one day. ⁓ But they

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (31:31)
Ahem.

Mmm.

John Pulskamp (31:39)
They've

always just had this model where they want big names. They want guys that are marketable and have the name and have the history. And it's LA and it's Hollywood. And you've seen that throughout their history with guys like Beckham, Keane. Yeah, they Becks. Yeah, Gerard, Ibrahimovic. I was there with Slots on and like...

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (31:54)
Yeah, mean backs, yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (31:57)
Yeah, Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (32:01)
Yeah, fucking hell,

I forgot the latin was there. Jesus.

John Pulskamp (32:07)
It was crazy like being an Academy kid walking around because over at Galaxy the Academy used the same facility. First team, second team and Academy was all in the same facility. So you we would be you know walking around like you know helping the kit man like you know back balls or pump balls up or something and Sloth on walking in to grab his boots and we're all like trying to sneak pictures with him and stuff while getting yelled at by our Academy stuff. Or like you know taking off the pegs or he'd be like taking them off the pegs or something or they probably.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (32:16)
Wow.

Wait, he gets his own boots? They didn't employ someone for that.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (32:32)
If

Hahaha!

John Pulskamp (32:40)
I wouldn't be surprised probably, but he would just be walking around or something and we would be like, can we get a picture and all this stuff. And yeah, it was just crazy, but going on a bit of a side tangent there. But anyway, when you have a first team like that, it's very, very difficult for a 16, 17, 18-year-old, regardless. mean, we were good players.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (32:42)
Yeah

John Pulskamp (33:06)
And just the opportunity to, I guess, graduate into the first team was very, very difficult. And not a lot of us did from a team that has now produced, mean, you're about an academy team that's produced five or six pros, which is from one team, like one age group ⁓ producing five or six pros. Yeah, that's like super, super rare. One, yeah, you're hoping for one or two. Like I'm hoping one or two from this team goes pro. had, I think, six now that are all playing either in Europe.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (33:06)
Thank

you

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (33:19)
Yeah.

That's unheard of. You're lucky to get one, to be honest.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (33:27)
Literally.

John Pulskamp (33:36)
MLS or USL. ⁓ So the fact that none of us broke into the first team at Galaxy except for one, one player Efra was the only one who went on to I guess have a bit of a career at Galaxy. ⁓ So kind of seeing that and seeing some of the older age groups before me ⁓

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (33:46)
Mm.

John Pulskamp (33:58)
kind of struggle, I'm thinking, well, you if they're struggling to get first team contracts, then I might be in the same boat. But I was doing real well and I had developed a bit of a reputation, ⁓ at least in the US youth soccer world, you know, for whatever that's worth, as a pretty decent keeper. So, you know, started getting approached by agents and whatnot and...

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (34:14)
Yeah.

⁓

John Pulskamp (34:20)
And yeah, I was just kind of, you know, trying to navigate it all. It was all new, foreign stuff to me. Until one guy, yeah, one guy called me that I had kind of been talking to that I was getting along with. And he just called me one day and said, look.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (34:21)
you

John Pulskamp (34:36)
I got a flight for you in two weeks. I want you to go on trial at Bournemouth. I got it all set up. They're real interested in you and if you're open to it, then we'll get you out there. obviously, this was in 2018, Premier League club.

Obviously at that point it's a no-brainer. I think I started packing my bag right then and there and And and yeah, you know decided that was my that was my time to leave Galaxy You know, they weren't they weren't too happy with me at the time But it was was an opportunity. I didn't really think I could pass up Yeah, exactly. So so I went out there was training with the 23 years. I was 17 years old at the time and

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (34:57)
Yeah.

You can't turn that down.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (35:14)
No.

John Pulskamp (35:23)
You know, I was on trial with the 23s and after two days they sat me down and said, look, we want to sign you to a 23s contract. We really like what you see, you know, this is great. And the agent that had set this up at the time, where, you know, he did great sending me there. It was brilliant. But again, I'm 17. This is all foreign to me. He kind of failed to...

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (35:33)
.

John Pulskamp (35:52)
explain or fail to ⁓ get the point across to me that it was going to be extremely difficult for me, outright impossible for me to sign a professional contract for Bournemouth given that I don't have a European passport. ⁓

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (36:10)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (36:12)
and being 17 with no first team games, no senior national team games. I was just a youth international academy player, so my resume wasn't going to get me the foreign player work permit. So I was going in there just completely unaware of that.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (36:31)
yeah, you're just a kid that's

going to play football

John Pulskamp (36:33)
Yeah, I was 17 thinking I'm signing with Bournemouth. This is sick. know, dream come true.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (36:33)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (36:33)
somewhere, like... Yeah, literally, like...

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (36:37)
Mm.

John Pulskamp (36:38)
Like, there we go. So, you know, they sat me down with this contract and, you know, Bournemouth's, you know, obviously now we see them killing it and it's, you know, the club has grown so much even in the past four or five years. But, you know, at the time then they weren't necessarily signing. This was pre-Brexit. They weren't necessarily signing it. Yeah, this was 2018.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (36:58)
⁓ This was pre? ⁓

shit, I thought this was after. So it was that hard to get visas before that as well? Wow.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (37:02)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (37:03)
Yeah, this was 20, no this was 20.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So

basically like the way I ended up learning that it worked was, you know, they're looking at first team appearances or appearances in a top flight league or senior national team appearances, which I had none of. And then...

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (37:11)
Wow.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (37:23)
Oh yeah, mean, there's not many

17 year olds in the world that are playing Week in Week out in any fucking men's level. Let alone the MLS and for the US. If you were, you wouldn't be fucking on trial with Bournemouth.

John Pulskamp (37:28)
Yeah, exactly, exactly, exactly. yeah, exactly. so the

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (37:36)
Okay.

You

John Pulskamp (37:40)
Yeah, I'd be doing all right for the 23s, you know? So yeah, so look, I was there and then even they were kind of like, okay, but now we need to look at, you know, the visa situation because as far as we know, you don't have a passport, right? And I said, no, I don't have a passport. I said, okay, well, we're gonna, and this is, you know, the...

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (37:43)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (38:00)
coaches and the GM and the front office people of the club and they said, okay, well, let us let's talk to our people and they were kind of going through their stuff behind the scenes and I was just staying in digs and training with the first team and the second or 23s ⁓ kind of bouncing between the both. ⁓

And essentially they had submitted the contract to the FA, ⁓ which immediately was turned around and denied and no, this isn't going to get approved ⁓ because he's not a European, he doesn't have an EU passport. And then they came back, told me, and they said, OK, there's essentially an appeal process that we're going to go through to try to get this approved.

And I forget how many appeals they ended up doing, but I ended up staying in England, ⁓ training there and playing friendlies and non-official matches for about seven months. Yeah. Yeah, it's from about June to December.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (39:02)
Fucking hell.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (39:02)
Seven months.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (39:06)
and you're earning no money whilst

doing this.

John Pulskamp (39:08)
⁓ now so i mean they they nature i was i was taken care of ⁓ they looked after me ⁓ know i was in dates so i had meals house and then they know they they they looked after me with with a little bit of ⁓

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (39:12)
Yeah, they looked after you.

Yeah.

Nah, but seven months, regardless, seven months

is ridiculous.

John Pulskamp (39:25)
Yeah, and I was, again,

was 17, you know, I was 17, so I wasn't coming for making money, you I was an academy kid, so for me it was just, so for me it was just really the same thing I had been doing, ⁓ you know, for the past.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (39:31)
You

Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, yeah, yeah.

John Pulskamp (39:42)
rest of my life basically or in my life so far. So in that sense, was really just the same thing. But yeah, so seven months of me not giving up the hope and dream. And yeah, basically went through their early season and the first half of their season from late summer to December. And finally December rolled around and they had.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (39:44)
Mm.

John Pulskamp (40:08)
you know, whatever number three, four, five ⁓ appeals that had all been denied. And finally in December, they sat me down and were like, look, John, we've been we've been trying left and right to to make this work, to to try to hold on to you. But, you know, it's been it's been a few months now or more than a few months. ⁓ And we don't want to like basically hinder you or stand in your way. So we want to help you move on to a club. ⁓

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (40:25)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (40:36)
Which which sucked it was it was heartbreaking to hear a Premier League club say we want you but we You know kind of have our hands tied So I was I was distraught It literally was it's not you It's never good no matter who's saying it it's it's It's a horrible thing to hear you know

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (40:40)
I can imagine

It literally was, it's not you, it's me. It's like... It's never good, no matter who's saying it.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (40:50)
Just...

Yes.

John Pulskamp (41:03)
It's exactly that. It literally was, it's not you. We love you, we want you, but our hands are tied and I'm just thinking there, are you kidding me? I left LA to like come make my life, you know, make my career here. And I was so excited about it, but.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (41:04)
You're not going able listen.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (41:17)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (41:21)
Look, at the end of the day, I wouldn't trade that experience for anything. ⁓ One, it gave me the confidence to say to myself, like, okay, I can play at this level. I came to this club at a young age and within two days they were saying, we got it, like, we want to sign you and...

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (41:25)
Mm.

John Pulskamp (41:40)
And yeah, that gave me the confidence to, or just remind myself, like, okay, this is an obtainable dream. ⁓ So I think that's, I mean, I was always a hard worker. I've always just kind of had a love for this game where I want to work hard, I want to do stuff, ⁓ do extra and go shoot, take shots and do extra bits of training. But I think that kickstarted it even a little bit more.

of like, okay, I can do this. I can go play at the highest level. So I just started working crazy hard and went on a few other trials around Europe. went to Portugal for a bit. Wasn't great experience in Portugal.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (42:26)
Hmm

John Pulskamp (42:27)
Yeah, I went to a club there, Rio Ave. mean, it's a good club, top flight club. But you know, I was coming from Bournemouth where they had this nice facility and I'm in the south of England on the coast and the beach and you know, everyone speaks English and I just, I loved life and it was great. And then I went to, the smaller older club in Portugal, much different setup. And yeah, you know, was all of a sudden now I felt like, okay, now I'm a foreign player.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (42:30)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

But yeah.

John Pulskamp (42:57)
year and and yeah day to day life and and and I think I had some residual frustration fresh like just anger yeah

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (42:58)
Yeah, you feel it, in pro day to day life as well.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (43:02)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (43:08)
Yeah, but that's natural though. Like, did you think like

in a way, like, was it a little bit like, you know, you felt like everything was just sort of going against you because it was nothing to do. mean, dumb mate. feel like I've said this three times this episode already, but how many times have we said it in previous episodes? Like most of the time in football, it literally, I'd say, I think being good at football is probably 60%.

John Pulskamp (43:17)
That was exactly it, yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (43:36)
of what actually gets you over the line. Because there's so much other shit that people don't know about. Like, I'm sorry, like, like, I'm sorry, like, you got told by a Prem club that they wanted to sign you after two days, and it's something to do with a visa. You know what mean? That's got nothing to do with you catching a football.

John Pulskamp (43:36)
It's true.

Yeah. No, it's so true. It's so true.

Yeah, nah, it's so true like... Yeah.

Yeah, exactly.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (43:55)
I haven't think

about you, right? Didn't you go to Bury? Right? And get a contract there and then a couple weeks later, whatever the club folds. So like, in another life, in another life jam, you go to Bury, you smash it up, you go to the championship. Yeah, you go to the champ, you go to the champion, you smash it up, you go to the championship, you have a great season, you go to the playoffs, you get promoted, all of a sudden you're 22 playing in the Premier.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (44:00)
Mmm.

Yeah. Mate. Mate. So- Mate.

John Pulskamp (44:07)
Yeah, Thumbs it up.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (44:13)
Two year deal in League One at 20.

John Pulskamp (44:13)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (44:24)
That's how football can go. It's mad.

John Pulskamp (44:26)
And that's how it happens. And that's why it's so funny too, like you always hear like, like this player came out of nowhere or like, we always say it or like I always say it to young players, like your life can change in a couple of months. Like the reality is like your life can change in a couple of months. And like that's how going to what you're talking about, Dom, it's like.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (44:40)
Mmm.

John Pulskamp (44:48)
timing and the right time, right place and a little bit of luck in terms of that. You know, the chance that kind of comes along with it. You know, the right person watching in the right game or you're just in the right team. The right situation can do wonders for your career. And you know, you have a good couple months and that works out. All of a sudden you've kind of, you know, got that hype around you or that buzz around you and all of sudden everything's different.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (45:13)
Mmm.

John Pulskamp (45:17)
So yeah, I I definitely went through that, or at least I felt like I was going through it in that moment. Went to Portugal, wasn't loving it. Then went to Germany for a bit. was in Hamburg for a few weeks training with them. They have, yeah, yeah. I don't know, were you here with Trey, Trey Villansoza? Yeah, so he was at Hamburg. ⁓

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (45:29)
⁓ They've got a few American lads, haven't they? Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, Trace, obviously, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I remember.

John Pulskamp (45:42)
I think back in the day Bobby Wood played for them. ⁓ So yeah, that I was real excited for that. was like, all right, cool. I got to try that handbrake. This will be good. And I went there and it was great. Loved it. Trained well. ⁓

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (45:44)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (45:57)
They had offered me a 23 contract for the remainder of the season. Mind you, this was just after the new year. So I'm sitting there in January, training with Hamburg and it's raining every day and all that, but I didn't care. I was just so football focused. So they had offered me a contract just to the end of the season. And then they said they were going to kind of reevaluate their goalkeeping room at the end of the season. But then it was kind of weird. they were like, yeah, we love you. great. This is all working out.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (46:15)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (46:27)
⁓ But we're only going to offer you this because...

In reality, we have a young guy, same guy in my same age group, same birth year, who they were real big on. He was a South Korean international and was kind of their guy. And they just flat out told me like, look, we kind of have this young keeper coming up that we're real big on. And we're going to be kind of graduating him into the first team from the 23s, ⁓ you know, at the end of this season. And I'm sitting there thinking like, why are you having me in on trial? Why are you having me in on trial?

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (46:59)
Why, what, yeah.

John Pulskamp (47:02)
if, yeah, yeah, like this is great and I'm,

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (47:02)
Were you wasting my time? Like honestly wasting each other's time.

John Pulskamp (47:07)
yeah, like I'm happy that you'd love to have me until the end of the season, but like, what good does that really do either of us if you're basically saying there's not really a path to the first team because we already have our minds made up on this other guy.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (47:13)
What's the point?

Whoa, and I take it this bloke's playing for the... I take it

that this bloke's playing in the 23s of that time as well. Yeah, so you're just training, you're a training player.

John Pulskamp (47:25)
At the time, yeah, so at the time he was their 23's keeper. Yeah, so I was kind of like, all

right, don't love the sound of that. I love the idea of coming to play for a big club like Hamburg, but they were pretty much telling me, look, it's gonna be real hard for you to kind of surpass this guy who we've made our mind up.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (47:41)
you

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (47:43)
Mm.

John Pulskamp (47:44)
⁓ made our

mind up about. So then I was like, okay, maybe, maybe that's, this isn't the best route for me. And, and yeah, it was a really low point in my life, honestly, because like I said, I'd gone from playing in a top academy, going to England and then, you know, Germany and then out of nowhere, I'm, feeling like, you know, I don't really have a home and I don't have a club. I felt like, like I'm no longer an academy player. Like I I got to turn professional here. I got, I got assigned somewhere. so I came back to the

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (48:06)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (48:14)
States for a little bit. was just back home in California with my family and training, working out, staying fit, and trying to figure out what I was going to do.

And, and, know, funny enough, was talking to a few different MLS teams and, kind of surveying my options and, uh, just one day, an old, uh, old Academy goalkeeper coach, uh, that I had, hadn't spoken to since I was like 14 years old. Uh, he was the Academy goalkeeper coach at the time, uh, sporting Kansas city. Uh, he had tried to get me to come out to Kansas city when I was like 14, 15, didn't end up going that that's when I.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (48:52)
Mm.

John Pulskamp (48:54)
I joined LA Galaxies Academy. I hadn't spoken to him in ages and he just called me up one day and was like, hey, he had just been keeping tabs on me basically and was like, hey, what are you doing? What's your situation like? And we talked and just got caught up with each other and he said, look, no pressure, come out to Kansas City. I think you'll really, like it. I think this could be a good place for you.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (49:05)
Okay.

John Pulskamp (49:20)
Mind you, this was 2019 at this point, early 2019.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (49:21)
And.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (49:23)
Mm-hmm.

John Pulskamp (49:24)
February 2019. And he's like, know, Timmy's an older keeper. You come here, spend a couple years working your way up through the teams. ⁓ And yeah, just a couple years. I tease.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (49:38)
just a couple. The guy just kept playing.

John Pulskamp (49:43)
Yeah, and then the guy just kept on going,

but I tease Timmy about that all the time. like, the whole reason I came out to Kansas City was because you were supposed to retire in two, three years. It turned out to be seven. But I was like, all right, Kansas City, I don't know about that. But again, at the time, was so football focused that I was like, all right, yeah, let's do it. So I went out to Kansas City and then, yeah, trained.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (49:51)
you

Yeah, yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (50:05)
sick.

John Pulskamp (50:13)
like the facilities top. ⁓ Funny enough, I had actually done a national team camp the year prior when I was still at Galaxy at their facility. And we were always, you you're 17, 16 at this national team camp to get those places. Awesome. People get to train here every day. Like this is, this is, this is unreal, unreal facility. So yeah. ⁓

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (50:29)
Yeah, mate, it is like, Dom, honestly, like, it is unbelievable there. Like, and I've seen

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (50:29)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (50:40)
some nice training grounds in my time. this top, man, it is so nice. Yeah.

John Pulskamp (50:41)
Nah, it's a different level

training facility. So I thought, oh, I went out there for that one camp and it was a sick training facility. So I'll at least go check that out. And then, so I went out there, trained, and again, this was...

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (50:53)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (51:00)
Probably by the time I had gone out there and trained, was March at that point. So MLS season had started, preseason being in January. So they were kind of already starting their season. ⁓

So they had their roster basically decided already. ⁓ And they were talking to me and they said, look, we really, really like you. We don't want to lose you to another club. We already have our three first team keepers and we don't have room on the first team. But we see a clear path for you here. You're without a home, so we're trying to give you one. ⁓ Come sign with the second team. prove yourself.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (51:39)
Is that when there was still Swope?

John Pulskamp (51:41)
That was when it still Swope. And then at that time I was just eager to get started somewhere. Just to land somewhere and get to work. So that's what I did and I signed my first professional contract in the USL with Swope Park Rangers. And yeah, it was great. Then I ended up moving out there at the end of March right before my 18th birthday.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (51:43)
Yeah.

Mm.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (51:56)
you

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (52:00)
That's mad. That's where it all went.

John Pulskamp (52:07)
And yeah, made my debut within a couple of weeks, right when I had just turned 18, or just before I turned 18. Played the remainder of that season with the second team. So till the fall, I was playing with Swale Park Rangers in the USL. And then yeah, at the end of that season, I remember when I got the call from the GM.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (52:16)
Stay with us.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (52:32)
Was it bless? Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

John Pulskamp (52:33)
was Blissie at the time, our technical director.

Blissie called me. was outside Bruxy's apartment. Jamil knows Bruxy real well. So, you we were all just hanging out one night and I was literally just leaving. It was like 10 PM at night. It was so weird. I literally got in my car, was about to drive back to my place and Blissie calls me and it's like, hey.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (52:39)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (52:55)
you

John Pulskamp (52:55)
you know, we're signing you to the first, he didn't even, like, you

know, it wasn't an offer, it wasn't an ask, he just called me, we're signing you to the first team. And I was like, okay. I'm like, I don't really have any other options here right now, so, so deal. He was like, yeah, deal. So he was like, look, we're signing you to the first team, you know, keep an eye, you know, call on your agent, call your agent and keep it, keep your eye on your email and we'll get it all sorted.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (53:00)
You

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (53:00)
Thanks.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (53:04)
You don't have a choice.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (53:05)
and BLEH HEH

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (53:10)
Yeah, deal. Yeah, exactly. Oh, mate.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (53:10)
Close, close.

John Pulskamp (53:24)
And yeah, it was a great feeling obviously knowing like, this little gamble to sign with the second team has paid off. I had a good year and I worked crazy hard that year. Funny enough about that year, mean, a little context Jamil. So I came back, I was the worst dude in terms of like, I was in England loving life, Portugal hated life, Germany.

frustrated with that whole situation. So I was just not in a good place when I first moved out to Kansas City. And I mean, not a bit like it was both like I like I look back on it and I joke with some of those guys that I played with that first year. ⁓ You know, anytime we catch up and I'm like, dude, I I'm sorry. I was I was an asshole. I was an asshole to the people around me. I mean, I worked harder than.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (53:53)
Yeah, yeah.

You just had a bit of a chip on your shoulder.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (54:12)
Thanks.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (54:13)
You

John Pulskamp (54:21)
anyone in the whole city. I was like on top of my stuff.

So I will give myself credit for that, but then I'll also put my hand up and say, was just, just, yeah. You know, when you just are like in that mood, like I was just in a mode, I was in a zone of like, I'm coming here to make my career what I know it can be. I feel like I just got something taken away from me and I'm not letting anybody stand in my way. I'm not here to make friends. I'm not here to, you know, enjoy being a soccer player. I'm coming here to become the best player I could be. And, and I do seriously think like I needed a,

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (54:37)
Yeah.

Yeah.

John Pulskamp (54:56)
year or two like that, like before I could kind of, you know, settle down and go back to more of a, I was still working like crazy and still kind of having that killer mentality. Like, of course I still have that. ⁓ But I was in a phase where like, it was all of that to the point where, where yeah, I was, I was just barking at guys constantly like stirring up fights in the locker room. Like, you know, cause, cause yeah, I mean, cause you do, yeah, you got like, you know, 25, 26 year old.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (55:16)
Okay.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (55:17)
I've had that one. I've had that one.

John Pulskamp (55:26)
playing well, but they've been doing it for a few years now and they're just doing what we call the USL grind, because it is, it's tough, it's tough job and they're just kind grinding away with a bit more of casual approach of like, hey, we got training, let's go hang out and do whatever and I'm over here thinking like...

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (55:36)
Mmm. Yeah, yeah.

John Pulskamp (55:52)
But now this needs to be run like a a prem team. Like this needs to be locked in. So I'm over here yelling at guys for not being professional and you know, just just ripping guys heads off that are, you know, six, six, seven, eight years my senior. And they're thinking, who the hell is this kid came out of nowhere and started telling us how to handle our careers? And I'm just, oh, I look back on it. I'm like, somebody I'm surprised somebody didn't punch me in the face at some point. But but but.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (55:55)
Yeah. ⁓

Smad is doing that 18 as well.

Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (56:18)
I'm sorry.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (56:18)
⁓ It's because you've always been

a bit bigger than most people, mate, to be fair. That's probably the one thing that's kept you out of trouble.

John Pulskamp (56:23)
Yeah, if I was like

a small midfielder or something, I probably would have gotten hit or something because I was coming for heads that first year. again, it paid off. It paid off. And I've kept the good bits of that in my personality while also easing up a little bit. And that year, I learned a lot. I learned kind how professional sports really works. And you got to get along with the guys you're around.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (56:30)
Yeah, right.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (56:31)
I'm

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (56:35)
That's funny.

John Pulskamp (56:50)
And yeah, it's just, yeah, it was a great experience. then, and then, yeah, obviously going up into the first team, was, it was, uh, yeah, was another one of those transitions. I mean, we were talking earlier about the transition I went through this year. You know, I could look back on my career and say like, okay, like that was a big checkpoint, you know, a big, uh, a big, a big, uh, transition point. And then going with that first team from the second team was a huge transition and then becoming going from number three to number two was a big transition. And then you kind of stay in that realm for a little.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (56:53)
Yeah, love it.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah

John Pulskamp (57:20)
bit. So, so yeah, I mean, that's that's how I landed in Kansas City. And I've been here now. I mean, it's crazy to think it's 2025. It's crazy to think I've been here seven years, man. This is this is my seventh professional season with the Yeah. Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (57:28)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it's mental man. And there's a lot to look back on for sure. it's

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (57:33)
Amazing.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (57:39)
been, I mean, the journey there, that's wild to be honest. I didn't know, I knew the things about Bournemouth and we've talked about that in the past. And I didn't, that's the first time I've heard the Hambo one and your time in Portugal. So you've been around, mate, you've been around. So I'm just happy that, like I said at the start, like all that hard work's coming to fruition now.

John Pulskamp (57:43)
Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah.

I've been around a bit, I've been around a bit.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (58:03)
So as we sort of look forward and I'm sure how familiar you are with the show, mate, but this is the part of the show where I pass it over to Dom ⁓ and he's going to take you through extra time on the Backstik podcast.

John Pulskamp (58:04)
⁓

Okay.

All right. All

right. Let's do it.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (58:23)
It's

been a little minute since I've got into this bag, man. So was just stretching off there, dusting off the cobwebs. Now for extra time, for extra time on the Instagram, the YouTube, the social medias, I am your host for the most. They've been commenting on certain things. You know, they're calling me Steve Harvey with a skin fade, because of, you know, the host bag that I'm getting into. So I'm going to take you through our four questions that we asked all of our guests.

John Pulskamp (58:25)
I was gonna alright

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (58:26)
You

Hehehehehe

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (58:52)
First question is, who is the best player you've played with?

John Pulskamp (58:52)
Thanks.

⁓ that's a tough question.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (59:01)
I

John Pulskamp (59:04)
Like there's so many, so many answers to that. Best player, like outright best player. I gotta say, and I'm biased to this and I'll explain why, but this guy, Ilie Sanchez, and the reason I say this, the reason I say this was he was a staple player in our first team for many years. ⁓

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (59:20)
⁓ player. ⁓ my god.

John Pulskamp (59:31)
But the reason I'm biased towards him was because he was a midfielder. He was a central midfielder and Spaniard who was just the calmest guy you will ever see on the ball and.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (59:42)
Dom is a joke,

he's an absolute joke.

John Pulskamp (59:43)
And he's

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (59:43)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (59:46)
a top player like like he's a fair answer like regardless But I'm more biased towards him because in my first year the year I made my debut was 2021 actually is when when when Jamil was with us and came out Yeah, yeah, maybe made made my made my first team debut and gotten my first run of games ⁓ And we had injuries to all of our center backs so we had one

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (59:49)
Mm.

Mm-hmm. I remember it. I was at the game.

John Pulskamp (1:00:12)
healthy center back in terms of our starting center backs ⁓ was Fonte who all the credit in the world to to Andreu Fontas, another Spaniard who he kind of goes in the same boat of this of him and Ilié. ⁓ Both of them came up to me. So Ilié was a midfielder playing center back. He's not a center back at all. He did fantastic this year at center back, but he's you know kind of a thinner holding mid link up type player.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:00:17)
Yeah.

No.

He's a ball player. ⁓

John Pulskamp (1:00:41)
He's a ball player, he's a ball player.

Both of them came up to me, I remember before my, or this wasn't before the debut, this was a couple games in. And they just came up to me and they said, look, if you ever get the ball and you don't know what to do with it, just kick it to one of us.

Like you could kick it, kick it at my chest, kick it at my head, my left foot, my right foot. If you ever get the ball and you see a forward pressing you, you know, at this point I'm 20 years old. I'm, you know, a bit nervous, you know, trying to figure it out. My first ever MLS games. And they just came to me and said, you're sitting the calmest way, calmest, most comforting voice.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:01:00)
You

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:01:03)
Yes.

John Pulskamp (1:01:23)
just go out and do your thing and if you ever get the ball and you don't know what to do with it and you see like you don't even have to look don't even look just you know I'm over there kick it over there and I'll and I'll deal with it and I and I remember I remember just thinking like bro I'm gonna stitch you up like I'm gonna like like don't tell me that I will do it and you're gonna get the ball picked off you and it's not gonna be good for both of us and they're like no don't worry about that don't worry about that just kick it our direction

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:01:32)
just kick it to me. ⁓ yeah, that's ledge.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:01:36)
Plus.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:01:40)
Hahaha

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:01:41)
Oof.

Yeah. Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:01:51)
And you know Peter's

siding with them as well, you're getting dug out for that, no matter what.

John Pulskamp (1:01:56)
No, of course. Well, yeah,

well, it wasn't even me worried about that. Like I was worried about them, you know, I don't want to be responsible for stitching them up and then they mess up. I did it and literally I would get the ball and I would have, you know, I'm just freaking out and I'd have it forward, you know, a six foot forward just sprinting at me at what felt like a hundred miles an hour. And I would literally just put it in his general direction with another guy running at him.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:02:03)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:02:06)
you

You

John Pulskamp (1:02:23)
I mean, the ball could be choppy, bouncy, again, at his left foot, right foot, touch, chop a guy, pass. I'm just like, it really is that easy for him. It really is that simple for him. So yeah, ⁓ long-winded answer. But yeah, I got to Ilya. But there's so many others I could name as well.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:02:32)
Class. Class.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:02:32)
Mmm.

Nah mate, top top player man, top player.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:02:43)
Alright, well even more tough, equally tough question then. Who's the best player you've played against?

John Pulskamp (1:02:46)
Alright.

Oof. Another tough question. Again, I feel, who's banging mom? So that's where I was going with that was a long list of names I could name. Like I've played against some top guys. mean, let me tell you some of the guys that have not only I played against, but have scored on me is Gareth Bale, Nani, ⁓ Chicharito has scored a ton on me.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:02:55)
Translation who's banged on you the most?

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:03:18)
Psst!

John Pulskamp (1:03:19)
I'm trying

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:03:20)
Nightmares. ⁓

John Pulskamp (1:03:22)
to think of the big, big name players. I remember I got... Luckily, I came in after those guys had tapered off. ⁓ I remember one game against LAFC. I was on the bench, ready to go, but young, few games under my belt, playing LAFC. We were having a real good year and they were having a real good year. So two top teams and it's nil-nil.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:03:25)
Like a Zlatan, Carlos Vela.

Right.

John Pulskamp (1:03:49)
Timmy goes down. Timmy does his hamstring and I'm obviously like, all right, this is a big, moment in the game. Second half, nil-nil game against a top team. Three minutes into me being on the field, Chicho Arango gets on the ball. And this was back when Chicho Arango was at LAFC.

This guy has the hardest shot. Him and Boanga have the two hardest shots I've ever seen in my life. Like, outrageous. I get on the field, don't have zero touches on the ball. It's the, know, whatever minute, 50 something minute. He gets the ball left corner of the 18. I'm standing on decent angle thinking like, all right, what's he gonna do? I don't even register seeing the ball.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:04:41)
you

John Pulskamp (1:04:41)
before it's in the top near, like in the upper corner of the near post as well. So I'm probably thinking, ⁓ like, yeah, he's hit it well, but maybe I should save it. No, no chance. To this day, I don't think I'm saving that ball. He's hit it so hard. 10 minutes after that.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:04:41)
Let's go.

Thank

Thanks.

John Pulskamp (1:04:58)
I'm 1v1 with Gareth Bale and he dinks it around me. Now we lose the game 2-0. I'm just thinking, like, that was a welcome to the league. Like, I had a few games under my belt, but that was a welcome to the league moment. So because of that, I'll have to say Chicho Arango, somebody who I don't love playing against. But then I also will have to say Cucho Hernandez. Used to play at Columbus, killed it at Columbus.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:05:07)
Yeah.

Mmm.

John Pulskamp (1:05:28)
Colombian I'm pretty sure He's he's outrageous. I mean that guy's that guy's bullied me. I've only played against Columbus twice ⁓ In both games. He he bullied me. I'm pretty sure one of the games he had a hat trick. So So

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:05:42)
I've never

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:05:43)
Madness!

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:05:44)
heard

a goalkeeper say I got bullied.

John Pulskamp (1:05:47)
I got

bullied. no, Cooch. Columbus. Columbus bullied me. Columbus bullied me. They bullied us. They bullied us. It was terrible, terrible experience. Yeah, so so purely purely purely for one game. ⁓

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:05:51)
Fucking hell.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:05:55)
Was that the, was, was, ⁓ my god, that's so funny. cause, mate, cause we've all heard the shouts, we've

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:05:59)
That's so good.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:06:03)
all, we've all heard the shouts in me, from corners, like we'll say like, I'll stick it on him or like whatever, blah blah blah, but for the keeper to actually say they bullied me.

John Pulskamp (1:06:08)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:06:10)
⁓

John Pulskamp (1:06:12)
No, absolutely

bullied me. Like, you know it's bad when he gets the ball and I'm just like, fuck. What's gonna do? Is he gonna chip me? Is he gonna curl it top corner? Is he gonna dribble it around me? And it's not a good feeling to have as a keeper. So for that reason, I gotta say Cucho, Cucho Hernandez.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:06:26)
⁓ for fuck's sake, man.

Right. ⁓

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:06:39)
Right. Yeah, so sorry. I was thinking, you're trying to take my job. I'm trying to take my job for fuck's sake. Right. This is the third question and this is going to be the most hard question that you've had as part of extra time. Everyone always stutters on this one. You ready? If you could pick three past or present teammates to go on a night out with, who would they be?

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:06:39)
Next one, next one, where are we? Yeah, sorry, I lagged out for a second there. In my brain.

John Pulskamp (1:06:43)
Yeah, I was gonna say, yeah, you...

Yes!

jeez.

Let's hear it.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:06:59)
I know

this is gonna be tough for you as well.

John Pulskamp (1:07:08)
Stutter on this one? That was easy. ⁓ Actually, no, I, yeah. Yeah, I, you know, I said that because it's like a couple names popped into my head and then about 15 names popped in my head. Three is crazy. ⁓ my God, three is crazy. Okay, I'm gonna cheat your question. gonna, no, no, I'm not gonna say four. I'm not gonna say four. I'm gonna say I've got.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:07:09)
Yeah ⁓

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:07:10)
Nah, this may

know because you're gonna have to you're gonna have to leave one out. You're gonna have to leave one out

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:07:21)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:07:30)
He's gonna say four, I know he's gonna say four.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:07:31)
What?

John Pulskamp (1:07:37)
Some former teammates that are to this day, some of my best friends, we've talked about them already, Wilson, Brooks, and Tyler Freeman, all three guys. guy named Brooks Thompson, Wilson Harris, and Tyler Freeman. Those are like my three best friends. Played with them all. So for the sake of the question, I'm leaving them out, because those are the three. Yeah, I'm cheating the question. I'll give them the shout out as my good, good friends. They know, you know.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:07:45)
Mmm.

very, very smart, mate.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:07:59)
It's good.

John Pulskamp (1:08:06)
But I've had plenty of nights with them and I've hung out with them plenty so I'm leaving them out. I'm going three other than those guys. And I'll leave out Jamil too because this is his podcast so I'm not... I'm I'm not... No, I'm saying I'm lumping you.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:08:13)
Mmm.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:08:18)
Hahaha!

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:08:18)
Yeah, so

I may I get picked up get I get picked every other week mate says fine

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:08:23)
No you don't. You've emptied twice.

John Pulskamp (1:08:26)
I'm lumping you, I'm lumping you in the group of those guys of like exempt from the question, right? Cause you're making the list in that regard. But yeah, look, I gotta say Johnny, he's great for fun. He's just such a funny guy. You know, I'm gonna throw Timmy Amelia out there. Me and Timmy got along so well. We worked together for so long. Our personalities, our humor just clicks real well.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:08:34)
There you go. Appreciate it, mate.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:08:35)
Ascenderus.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:08:41)
Yeah.

Hmm.

John Pulskamp (1:08:57)
So, so Tim Emilia, Johnny, and then, oh man, this is tough. I was gonna say, I would get the old band back together with some of the more recent years, last year the year before of Andreu Fontas and Daniel Shallowy. That was kind of our group for pre-seasons and spending some time off the field together.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:09:16)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (1:09:26)
Fonty font us is is one of the funniest guys one of the nicest guys ever but like Get him outside of this facility get him outside away from the footy and and he is he's he's hilarious He's he's like the sleeper funny like Johnny's the guy that everyone knows is funny and is funny But gets all the credit for being funny Fonty is like the sleeper funny that like doesn't get doesn't get the credit for being the funny guy But once you hang out with him and get to know him he's

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:09:30)
Yeah, Fonzie's class.

Yeah.

John Pulskamp (1:09:55)
hilarious so so and then and then same with Timmy Timmy Timmy's just Timmy's a crack up so so I gotta throw in the old guys it's an old group it's a very old group all Johnny's still playing just you know move the RSL but you know he's well into his 30s and then Timmy and Fonty are retired so I'm picking some old heads I like the old guys I don't know yeah they exactly they've they've had the experience

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:09:57)
Mmm.

Alright.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:10:05)
Okay.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:10:06)
Mmm.

Experience mate, experience. Mate,

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:10:17)
But.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:10:20)
all got Mrs, all got wives and kids, so you can just clean up. That's what you're going for.

John Pulskamp (1:10:23)
Yeah, exactly. And that's why maybe that's maybe that's why I like hanging out with them. Maybe that's a great point. Maybe that's why

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:10:26)
Mm-hmm

John Pulskamp (1:10:32)
I like hanging out with them so much. It's no it's no competition because they're all married with kids. So they're literally just there to hang out with each other and have a laugh and then watch me make a fool of myself trying to talk to some girls. So so yeah. So yeah, maybe that's why I like hanging out with them so much. It's no competition.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:10:39)
Yeah

Yeah, exactly. Nah, that's a good group. That's a good group.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:10:49)
It is.

Hilarious. I

John Pulskamp (1:10:53)
That's a good group.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:10:53)
mean, you did put a disclaimer that you cheated the question, but you've named about seven people there. So we'll move on. But on a more wholesome note. Yeah. Amazing. On a more wholesome note to round us up. What is your biggest achievement on the pitch so far?

John Pulskamp (1:10:57)
And that's it!

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:10:59)
Laughter

Ask for free gave fucking 19

John Pulskamp (1:11:08)
Yeah

Tough questions. ⁓ Look, I got to go to the Olympics last summer and that was, you know, I didn't play but regardless that was just such a personal experience for me and something I wanted so, so bad.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:11:22)
Meh mate.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:11:24)
hot seat.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:11:25)
MULF

Amazing.

John Pulskamp (1:11:41)
⁓ Just to be on that plane going to Paris and experiencing what it's like to be on the Olympic team and to be there to witness the Olympics in person was such a cool experience for me. ⁓

And then, yeah, and then just little things along the way. My first shutout, my first clean sheet was against Galaxy, was against, you know, the club, my boyhood club. And to get my first clean sheet against them, that was a game that I will never forget and was such a cool experience. then every game against them is always cool for me. I'm undefeated against them. I've never lost to them. So I'm hoping to keep that going for...

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:12:04)
Hmm.

Yeah.

Long may that continue.

John Pulskamp (1:12:26)
Yeah, exactly.

knock on wood, I'm hoping that continues for a while. yeah, gotta say going to the Olympics was something. Or another one that was like that was ⁓ my first and only, but my first call up to the senior national team. ⁓ I was in with the senior national team in 2021 and that was just, again, an experience that makes you stop and kind of give yourself a pat on the back.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:12:55)
Yeah.

John Pulskamp (1:12:56)
Okay,

and enjoy this moment.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:12:58)
Amazing. Amazing. I think that's a perfect way to close out extra time. Been a mad journey. It's been great getting to know you and just hearing all the trials and tribulations, man. know, things could have been so different, everything that's happened to you and you've gone through has put you in a position you are today, right? And so, you know, you've got the number one spot and yeah, especially for a keeper as well, you're relatively early in your career, even though you said you've been a...

John Pulskamp (1:13:00)
Hey. You. You're trying to suck my eye.

Yeah, nice.

It's probably to this moment.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:13:25)
SKC what 70s or whatever you're relatively early so you still got a long career ahead of you, but yeah, man That's been extra time. I've been Domokusha host for the most and I'll flash you back to jam to close this out

John Pulskamp (1:13:26)
Yeah. Yeah. Love it. That's a lot of salsa, man.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:13:35)
you

Love it, mate.

Love it, mate. Nah, you summed it up perfectly, Dom. Obviously, you know, it's a good time, I think, for us to wrap up the show, but you you summed it up perfectly, like, it's, you know, the trials and tribulations have got you to this point, and they've got you in a point where you're playing for a massive football club, which, you know, fingers crossed. You know, I was at the club for a year. They drafted me. They were my route into the professional game, you know, like, I'll always be a sporting KC fan when people ask me which team I support.

the US is always SKC. So, you know, they gave me

John Pulskamp (1:14:06)
in the states, ⁓ absolutely.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:14:09)
my chance and you know, I would have never have played without them taking a chance on me. So, you know, I hope that you can continue playing on that team and keep playing at the high level and hopefully we can see sporting back at the top end of the table because that's where the club belongs, you know.

John Pulskamp (1:14:19)
Yeah.

Yeah, hopefully, hopefully so. Absolutely, absolutely.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:14:29)
So, but yeah, like I said, it's, ⁓

John Pulskamp (1:14:29)
But, not.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:14:33)
so thank you for coming on, mate. I've really enjoyed that. Yeah.

John Pulskamp (1:14:35)
No, of course, of course not.

been a pleasure. It's great catching up. It's been a while and yeah, I appreciate you guys having me on and we'll have to do it again sometime. Do a little follow-up part two episode sometime soon.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:14:40)
Yeah.

Yeah,

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:14:46)
Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:14:47)
absolutely mate, absolutely. Well, I look forward to that because this one's been good. on that note, it's my opportunity. Personally, I'd like to thank everyone who's made it this far. Thanks ever so much. was an hour and 15 minutes. I hope you've enjoyed us rabbiting on. Once again, Johnny Boy, thank you for coming on the pod. Dom, stellar performance as always.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:15:14)
That's right,

mate. That's right.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:15:15)
And as

we're heading into the weekend, everyone makes sensible bad decisions. And as always, please, as Dom said at the beginning, please like, subscribe on all the socials at the Backstik pod. You know, get behind us. We really appreciate all the support. Let us know who you want to hear from next. But it's about that time for me to say for myself, from Dom and from John.

John Pulskamp (1:15:21)
Yeah.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:15:21)
Hahaha! ⁓

John Pulskamp (1:15:28)
you

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:15:43)
Thanks ever so much for listening and we'll see you next week.

John Pulskamp (1:15:47)
Cheers guys.

Jamil Roberts & Dom Okus (1:15:47)
Ace.